The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus and more particularly, to an image forming apparatus capable of discriminating colors existing on a document.
A variety of multifunction image forming apparatuses are available today. For example, a digital copier is known which is capable of not reproducing an image existing at the outside or inside of a mark entered on a document by a monocolor marker, meshing, coloring or changing the color of one of the two regions divided by the mark, or otherwise manipulating an image. However, this type of conventional digital copier has various problems left unsolved, as follows. To begin with, only a single kind of processing is practicable with the inside or the outside of the color mark, i.e., a plurality of kinds of processing cannot be effected by a single output. Further, the color of the marker is specified and cannot be replaced with another in the event of manipulation. In addition, since the processing functions cannot be selected unless keys are operated in a complicated manner, they are rarely used despite that various copying functions are available with the copier or, even if used, need complicated key operations which increase the copying time.